quote:NASA Langley Research Center will hold a public meeting at 7 p.m. Jan. 19 in Poquoson to discuss the proposed demolition of the center's historic gantry and five wind tunnels.

The 250-foot-high, Apollo-era gantry is a National Historic Landmark. The five other facilities are the 8-Foot Transonic Wind Tunnel, the 8-Foot High-Speed Wind Tunnel, the 30- by 60-Foot Full-Scale Wind Tunnel, the 16-Foot Transonic Wind Tunnel and the 7- by 10-foot Subsonic Wind Tunnel.

The meeting will be held at the Poquoson Public Library, 500 City Hall Ave. For more information, call Jan Benson of the NASA Langley Environmental Management Team at 864-3320

The gantry is the former Lunar Landing Research Facility.

From Langley's website:

quote:This essential facility allowed NASA to train Apollo astronauts to fly in a simulated lunar environment. Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin and 22 other astronauts used the facility to practice piloting problems they would encounter in the last 150 feet of descent to the surface of the moon. It was built in 1965 and was basically an A-frame structure with a gantry used to manipulate a full-scale Lunar Excursion Module Simulator (LEMS).

The astronauts were also able to practice walking on a simulated lunar surface, as the base of the Lunar Landing Research Facility was modeled with fill material to imitate the moon's surface. Suspended by slings and cables on their sides, the men experienced what it would be like to walk on the moon where gravity is only 1/6 of that on Earth.

Today this facility is used for aircraft impact dynamics studies. The lunar landscape has been replaced by an impact runway that can be modified to simulate different crash environments. The LEMS has also been refurbished, and the names of many of the astronauts who trained at the Lunar Landing Research Facility are listed on its exterior. Today, the LEMS is on exhibit at the Virginia Air and Space Center in Hampton.

According to an earlier article by the Daily Press, NASA is accepting public comments on the demolition: